Psychics/Mediums in the Roman Catholic Church

Discussion in 'Non-Anglican Discussion' started by Religious Fanatic, Jul 10, 2018.

  1. Religious Fanatic

    Religious Fanatic Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    609
    Likes Received:
    305
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    Christian
    Does anyone know how common it is to find practicing Roman Catholics who are also active in psychic/medium practices? My experiences with RCCs give me the impression that they are largely humanistic and borderline secular. I have rarely met any devout Catholics whose practices are in line with what the church actually teaches. I also know that there are many people in the church claiming to be involved in the occult. Many of them are liberal feminists who thank the doctrines of Mary and the Saints for getting them into goddess and medium practices. Some are even in to neo-paganism, and see Mary as just another identity or name of the earlier more ancient goddess who they sometimes claim is a purer form of the feminist spiritual force. The Long Island Medium, a popular TV personality, claims she is actively in the Roman Catholic church taking sacraments, all the while communicating to people's deceased relatives and believes in a more new age cosmic force God and Jesus as just a good teacher to help unify people's spiritual consciousness. There also has been no word that her priest or church has called her out on this practice despite how well known she is.

    So how common in your experience is occult synchronization with Catholic beliefs in your experiences? Most Roman Catholics I've talked to are open to the idea or already know people who are doing it, and use the same things to justify it as I mentioned earlier. I have heard an account of a priest who had encounters with phenomenon in a haunted house but couldn't justify it as Satanic, so he left the church and became a practicing medium.
     
  2. Tuxedo America

    Tuxedo America Member

    Posts:
    97
    Likes Received:
    86
    Country:
    United States
    Religion:
    Latin Rite Catholic
    Many American Catholics are poorly catechized. What those who don't know better (or what those who know and don't care) do doesn't adequately reflect what the Church is teaching, or the direction the Church is heading. One rightly doesn't judge all Anglicans based on what the Episcopalians are doing- whose leadership (who should be assumed to know a little about their faith) is trying to de-gender God. If one shouldn't base a judgement on Anglicans based on what one church in the communion is doing, there's even less reason to make a judgement of Catholicism based on what those who don't know or don't care about their supposed faith are doing.

    What you're witnessing is a result of a secularized Christianity. When we aren't persecuted for our beliefs (or our persecution is limited to verbal assaults), some become weak. It's made even worse when the heresy of relativism is afoot. You'll witness this in any church- no one is immune.
     
    Aidan likes this.
  3. JoeLaughon

    JoeLaughon Well-Known Member Anglican

    Posts:
    363
    Likes Received:
    320
    Country:
    United States
    Religion:
    ACNA
    This tends to be more common in communities where a sort of "folk Catholicism" was/is common. It was common in European countries (and may exist on a limited basis) but died with the death of folk religion there.
     
    Aidan likes this.
  4. Baggett

    Baggett New Member

    Posts:
    1
    Likes Received:
    1
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    Anglican
    In my corner of the world (American Southwest) Roman Catholicism has two main flavors: primarily Anglo and primarily Hispanic. There are lots of other flavors (Korean, etc.) but their numbers are much smaller.

    I was formerly a R. Catholic in culturally Anglo churches and, yes, they are largely humanistic and borderline secular. In these churches I never saw anything even remotely occult. Feminism was widely accepted by the laity, but didn't manifest as spiritual practice. Nobody cared what the church taught with respect to sexuality. Most churches were rapidly losing members due to the sex scandals and lack of ministerial support.

    Culturally Hispanic Catholicism is a horse of a different color. These churches have been growing due to immigration. Latin American immigrants have brought with them a distinctive spirituality including mediums, a greater emphasis on charismatic gifts, and occult practices such as the Santa Muerte (Saint Death) cult. Santa Muerte is apparently derived from the Virgin Mary. Social outcasts find her more accessible than Christ or the Virgin Mary. You can't visit a cemetery in my area without coming across Santa Muerte paraphernalia.

    The Santa Muerte cult, in particular, is dangerous to Christians. Of course, the local R. Catholic churches have a responsibility to address this issue but they have failed to do so. This is probably due to a fear of appearing culturally insensitive or causing church members to leave even more rapidly.

    More on Santa Muerte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2018
    anglican74 likes this.
  5. Religious Fanatic

    Religious Fanatic Well-Known Member

    Posts:
    609
    Likes Received:
    305
    Country:
    USA
    Religion:
    Christian
    I found out that popular psychic John Edwards, while having distanced himself from the Catholic faith as he grew up, still believes in God, feels some 'connection' to him, and says he still sympathizes and feels some closeness with his Catholic roots. I heard on the Catholic Answers forum, regarding whether psychics/mediums can be legitimate Christians, an account from someone who went to a local Catholic church where John Edwards was speaking. Someone also mentioned seeing Teresa Caputo (the Long Island Medium) attending mass at their local church. You'll see that both Edwards and Caputo have new age/universalist views of good/evil, God, etc. which are not orthodox by even Catholic standards, yet some like Caputo have not only been allowed to remain a member of their church, taking sacrements, in spite of her fame and notoriety, but they have even gained the respect of their 'priest'. I know some other occultists who claimed to be 'Catholic' that had admiration by their priests for 'opening their mind' that psychics and mediums can help people and do good things, all the while professing to be Christian. There was another practicing medium who had a haunted house, and felt the idea of Satan wanting to deceive people by making sounds or appearing as dead people didn't make sense, that they actually were spirits in need of help. That's what led him to reject the Catholic priesthood he was a part of and pursue the occult.

    The Catholic Answers forum is also laughably bad in regards to defending the faith, which is the least likely place you'd expect to find people who do more to make Catholicism look like a joke than the other way around. The nearly unanimous consensus of people claiming occultists who claim to be Catholic have real gifts even when they are outside the pale of orthodoxy is astounding. You should also look up the thread, "Can Catholic priests be possessed?"